Despite the housing market collapse and the subsequent fall of civilization, lots of people still think we’re dopes for renting instead of buying.
Nevermind that our fancy neighborhood with the good public schools is pretty much unaffordable once ownership is involved. There’s a much simpler reason why we enjoy renting. When something breaks, our landlord fixes it. He may not do it as fast or as well as we would like, but it’s always FREE.
Free fixing of broken stuff should not be overlooked in the debate over rent vs. own.
Recently I had a pancake crisis. I never used to make pancakes, but Viv likes them and Dave does too (as long as I throw in some chocolate chips) so I’d been trying to work them into the morning rotation. But my pancakes were coming out terrible — half burnt, half raw — because all the oil in the pan was rolling to one side and cooking my flapjacks unevenly. My flaps were jacked, I tell ya.
I visited the cookware message board on Chowhound.com to ask those helpful fanatics if perhaps I was using the wrong kind of skillet. A few people swore by electric griddles, which can be plugged in on the counter. But one guy made a suggestion that would change breakfast forever: “Get your landlord to replace your stove. It’s obviously crooked.”
He was right. The burners sloped like the bunny hill at Killington.
All right, so you can’t exactly tell from the photo – my whole kitchen looks crooked. But trust me that his diagnosis was right on the money.
One impassioned email plea to our landlord, three visits from the building handyman and four weeks later, this happened:
The power of renting!
Not that this upgrade wasn’t long overdue. Our complex was built in 1969, and the oven/stove combo seemed to be an original occupant, making it older than me.
43 years of grease. We could power a small village.
Now we have a new, clean, nearly level stove that can be somebody else’s problem in 43 years.
And we have happy pancakes.
Congratulations, Aim, on the new range! Pancakes have never had a better champion. Do you have a new microwave, too? Let me know if you’re interested in expanding to waffles – I have a killer recipe for gluten-free pumpkin waffles.
Renting rocks! Especially rent stabilized baby!
🙂 I love new kitchen appliances!!!
I love your humor, and your new kitchen appliance. I must say, renting would be ideal for us, owning a house would come in very high too. Currently we are rooming with my parents to save enough money to at least do one or the other 😛
Thanks Alex! Hope you get your own place soon, though I’m sure the babysitting benefits are great in your current situation.
We also rent and are love it. We live in the Colorado Rockies where ski resorts and Hollywood starlets have driven the real estate market into a frenzy. However, with the housing slump we are able to live in a much larger rental than we could ever afford. Plus, our landlord throws in the pool and swim club for free.
I have read there is a growing population of us non-owners out there.
Glad to hear it. Wave of the future!